This trek, no doubt, qualifies as the most adventurous and the most riskiest thing I have ever done. The plan was made just 2 days before we started. The place, Harishchandragadh, is around 90-100 Kms from Kalyan. You need to catch a bus for Ahmednagar from Kalyan Station and get off at Khuphipada (atleast thats what i was calling it).
We reached Kalyan Station at around 11.30PM but only managed to catch a bus somewhere around 2:30AM. Taking around 3 hours from Kalyan, we reached there in the morning at 5. Pitch dark, raining like hell and dense fog everywhere. The bus dropped us at a roadside 'dhaba' from where we started.
Now, it would'nt be wise to venture out on a road when you don't know where you are. But the what hell, we decided to start walking towards Harishchandragadh in this 'awesome' weather after taking directions from the dhaba owner. The highway boards mention that this place is 4 km from Khuphipada, but to be honest it feels easily over 6-7 kms.
This road, which is mostly a rocky path over a dam, leads to a small village called Khireshwar, which we called our Base camp. I must tell you, the road over this dam is something straight out a movie. Some locations are almost like scenes from Lord of the Rings, 300, Narnia etc. Green fields on your left, fog covered lake on your right, a twisting and turning road which appears to be leading nowhere.
After walking for what seemed like ages, we finally reached Base Camp. Fully drenched and very tired after all the travelling and walking. Now, at this stage, we were already thinking of abandoning the plan and heading home. But no, the 'keedas' in all 4 of us egged us on to go further. We rested for an hour, had breakfast and then started walking. Mind you, the rain still hadn't stopped.
Score: Us = 0 : Mother Nature : 1
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| Base Camp - Khireshwar |
Nevertheless, we headed out from Base Camp. 2 hours into the climb, we reached an open area. The view from this place is phenomenal. You are essentially on one arm of a 'U' shaped cliff and this is an approximate 1000 feet above ground level. You can actually see the fog rolling in from far away, over your head and into the jungle behind you. Awesome!
Refreshing as it looks, we met another group of trekkers here who gave us the bad news. The caves where we were planning to stay for the night was another 6-7 hours away. So much so for the 3-5 hours on the internet! Exhausted that we already were, a 'strategic meeting' was called in. Another 7 hours in this weather seemed a little too much. Quitting now would suck, yes, but it was the most sensible decision at this stage. Just about to turn back and climb back down, enter: Another group of trekkers. Fully prepared, with guides, walking sticks, cooking utensils et al. These guys, all between 30-45 years of age were the ones who actually instigated the 'keedas' inside us. I honestly still regret my decision of going forward that day. We turned back and started climbing again with this group. Rain, cold and fog as bad as it could get.
Score: Us = 0 : Mother Nature : 2
3 hours of climbing rocks and crossing streams came the most toughest part of the trek. Sheer cliffs covered with moss and incessant rain making things more slippery. Not that we hadn't noticed all this since all we wanted to do now is get in the caves, light a fire and sleep! To give you an idea how risky this was, one wrong step, you go down atleast 3500 feet with nothing to stop your fall. We climbed, paused to think, what the hell were we doing and then climbed again. Below is one of pictures that I somehow managed to click.
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| Hanging on |
At the peak, to my amazement and relief, there was a much needed tea stall. We all certainly needed to rest and re-energize. But stopping here for long meant that your body would get cold again and venturing out in the rain would cause more shivering and muscle cramps. After a 10 minute tea break we started again. From this point the caves were another 2 hours away.
Score: Us = 1 : Mother Nature : 2
Mother Nature welcomed us to the caves with gale force winds, heavy rain and visibility reduced to hardly 10 feet. And super cold it was! We managed to get into some dry clothes and then managed to sleep through the night. Yea, nothing too interesting about living in a cave. Its dark, cold and absolutely disgusting to sleep in all the muck.
Next morning we left the caves. We came to know about a shorter and less demanding route leading down which would take 2 hours. Way better than climbing down those cliffs, I say. This route leads to a village called Pachnayi. The way down was so easy we covered it in around 1.45 hours which including taking photos and chilling for while. We all wished we had come up this way rather than taking the longer and more dangerous route via Khireshwar. Once down, photo sessions were the norm for the next 2 hours till the next bus would come. :-D
Score: Us = 2 : Mother Nature = 2
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| Approx. 2000 feet of the mountain is covered with fog |
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| My trek mates (L to R) - Hardik, Danish, Ankit, Me |
Looking back on what we had done in the past 24 hours, though there was a feeling of pride and achievement on what we accomplished, we were all very glad that it was finally over.
